December 2022
Message from the Chair
Dear Parents, Caregivers and VSB families,
The countdown begins to the holidays, and I wish you and yours the best of the festive season and a happy new year!
School Liaison Officers being reinstated was the topic of last month and the summary is that the Board approved a motion reinstating a reimagined SLO program but did so without the feedback of Parents and without the feedback of Students. DPAC is not concerned with the outcome which the Trustees own, but with the process, which we all collectively own.We formed a coalition with some other DPACs across BC and did our first joint advocacy where 8 BC DPACs representing 40% of BC students, wrote a joint open letter to Premier Eby to include 3 things in the mandate letter to the Ministry of Education and Child Care:
- Align housing policy & planning with school planning.
- Restore life-cycle cost analysis for school facilities.
- Provide timely and equitable access to education for students with disabilities.
This December, there are no scheduled VSB meetings and our only meeting is this week on Thursday, Dec 8th at 7pm and we’ll be focusing on PAC rights. You are welcome to attend. We need some help: We would like to onboard a couple new DPAC Executives early in the new year. You do not have to be on your PAC executive; just have to be nominated by the PAC and any VSB parent or caregiver. Email me at: chair@vancouverdpac.org or reply to this newsletter for details.
Vik Khanna
2022/23 DPAC Chair
Upcoming DPAC Meetings
DPAC Committees and Working Groups
PACS - we encourage you to promote these committees and groups to your parents in your regular communications.
- Vancouver DPAC is expanding the tent! If you are interested in specific work at DPAC, we want to hear from you. Here are the committees and working groups who meet regularly (or semi regularly) to shadow the work of the VSB and/or to advise DPAC in our advisory role at VSB:
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Important Dates
2022 - 2032 — International Decade of Indigenous Languages
In February 2022, proclaimed the period between 2022 and 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, to draw global attention on the critical situation of many Indigenous languages and to mobilize stakeholders and resources for their preservation, revitalization and promotion.
2015 - 2024 -- International Decade for People of African Descent
In December 2014, the UN General Assembly, in its Resolution 68/237, proclaimed the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).
Under the theme "Recognition, Justice and Development”, the Decade provides an operational framework to encourage States to eradicate social injustices inherited from history and to fight against racism, prejudice and racial discrimination to which people of African descent are still subjected.
December is Universal Human Rights Month
- Thursday, Dec 1 – World AIDS Day (Equalise and Integrate to End AIDS)
- Saturday, December 2 – International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
- Sunday, Dec 3 – International Day of Disabled Persons
- Monday, Dec 5 – International Volunteer Day
- Tuesday, Dec 6 – Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women
- Thursday, Dec 8, 7pm – DPAC Executive Meeting
- Friday, Dec 9 – International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime
- Saturday, Dec 10 – Human Rights Day
- Tuesday, Dec 13, 4:30pm – VSB Personell Committee Meeting (CANCELLED)
- Friday, Dec 16, 3pm – Closing date for mini-school applications (Check individual programs for criteria)
- Dec 18 to Dec 26 – Hanukkah, Festival of Lights
- Tuesday, Dec 20 – International Human Solidarity Day
- Dec 19 - 30 – Winter Break
- Wednesday, Dec 21 – Winter Solstice
- Sunday, Dec 25 – Christmas Day
- Dec 26 to Jan 1 – Kwanzaa
- Sunday, December 31 – New Year's Eve
- Tuesday, Jan 3 – Return to School 2022
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News and Information
In this Issue:
New Working Groups (Active Transportation, Inclusive Education, Sustainability)
Neurodiversity, Disability and Diverse Needs
SLOs / Police in Schools
Anti-Racism and Student Safety
Foods in Schools
COVID Information and Resources
Kindergarten Registration
VSB Registration for Choice and Cross Boundary Programs
Grants for PACs
Student Learning Survey
Preparing for Graduation
News from:
BCCPAC
VSB
Ministry of Education
Resources
photo credit
New Working Groups
- Vancouver DPAC is populating working groups to make room for parents and caregivers with specific concerns and interests to gather with like minded people or those with similar experiences. Committees and Working Groups are listed below the Letter from the Chair in the top section. Here are a couple of our newest groups:
Active Transportation
- Vancouver DPAC has formed an Active Transportation and Safe Routes Working Group, and is introducing a Safe Routes Tracker. This tool will be used to keep a record of dangerous incidents and crashes involving cars and vulnerable road users going to and from VSB schools. If you are a VSB parent/guardian and want to report a dangerous incident to the Safe Routes Tracker or help and/or join this working group please contact Michael Lang.
Inclusive Education
- A new Inclusive Education Working Group has met twice to discuss the various ways that students are being prevented from receiving an education experience that is relevant to them and will help them to achieve to the best of their abilities in their lives. According to the BC School Act:
- It is the goal of a democratic society to ensure that all its members receive an education that enables them to become literate, personally fulfilled and publicly useful, thereby increasing the strength and contributions to the health and stability of that society;
and
- The purpose of the British Columbia school system is to enable all learners to become literate, to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralistic society and a prosperous and sustainable economy.
- This group will inform DPAC of their experiences as parents and caregivers who seek to ensure their children are included in the above criteria for public education, and will be looking to share information about advocating for their children at various levels within the schools hierarchy. The group collectively has decided that core values include the following:
- Inclusion is about Anti-Ableism;
- Ensuring that education works for every student (and doesn't harm them).
- The focal points of this group at this time are as follows:
- To discuss shared and unique experiences of advocating for their children's education;
- To support parents and caregivers who are struggling to ensure their children receive appropriate education that fits within the definitions provided within the School Act;
- To gather, organize and share information so that parents and caregivers are not saddled individually with seeking an appropriate and meaningful education for their children.
- Please contact Karen or Sandra to join this group in the new year.
Sustainability
Neurodiversity, Disability and Diverse Needs
- ADDitude (Inside the ADD Mind) is an online ADD resource magazine that explores all things ADD for adults and kids. They hold several workshops / talks each month. For November, watch for:
- FamilySmart presents the December In the Know Series: ADHD – the Real Deal. Come together with other families to watch this video presentation and stay for a facilitated discussion by a FamilySmart Parent Peer Support Worker. Dates are December 5, 13, 14, 15, or 20. Check website for times.
SLOs / Police In Schools
Anti-Racism and Student Safety
- Anti-Semitism has been front and centre, both in VSB schools where hate symbols sometimes appear on buildings, spraypainted on the outside walls of schools (but quickly painted over by maintenance staff) and as markings in classrooms, and through anti-Semitic speech and posts. With the rise of right-wing rhetoric in our societies comes well-known personalities stoking the fires of hate in a way that is concerning to societal cohesion. Sports figures and pop stars can negatively influence kids when these "role models" spew hate and ignorance, and parents and caregivers need to ensure that our children know how to recognize and even interrupt hate speech, including anti-semitism.
- Youth, and especially teen boys, are being groomed to join in hate activities online. 'It's a slippery slope': How young men fall into online radicalization — CBC — explores this trend.
Foods in Schools
- Vancouver DPAC is hosting a virtual School Food workshop on February 23, 2023. To help us plan a workshop that meets your needs, we would appreciate your input through this short survey, which will be open until December 16th. The survey will take 5 to 8 minutes to complete, and is open to any VSB PAC member, including PAC executives, lunch coordinators, parents and VSB administrators. A summary of responses (anonymized) will be shared with VSB administrators, PAC executives, respondents to this survey, and partners who support food literacy and school food (ie. VCH Public Health Dietitian). Take the Vancouver DPAC School Foods survey.
- The Government of Canada is surveying the public as a part of the process of developing a pan-Canadian School Policy. Participate in the questionnaire here.
- Sustain Ontario is holding a workshop called "Amplifying Our Voices" on Monday, December 12 at 9 am. Register here.
COVID Information and Resources
- Immunity Debt has been discussed at length for the last couple of months, with Public Health Officers and much of the mainstream media giving it airtime. However, doctors, health researchers and other professionals have debunked the concept and widely dismissed it as a false narrative. It is now commonly understood that exposures, and particularly repeated COVID19 infections deplete people's immune responses (and T-Cells), which has made this year's outbreaks of influenzas, RSV, COVID variants, and fungal and bacterial infections much more serious than what we saw happen last year.
- Back at the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, Laila Yuile wrote about the Precautionary Principle in time of disease spread in Lessons not Learned from the SARS Inquiry: The Precautionary Principle be Expressly Adopted as a Guiding Principle.
- From BC CDC — An article about building home-made air filtration systems to remove smoke particles from the air, but these Corsi-Rosenthal boxes were originally made and the know how for construction was offered to filter out COVID and other diseases known to be spread airborne.
- Masks4EastVan is a group of grassroots organizers who have been providing quality masks for people in East Vancouver who need but can't afford them. Based upon a culture of community care, they redistribute masks, RAT tests and hand sanitizer at events and sometimes to folks' doors.
- Effectiveness of Mask Wearing to Control Community Spread of SARS-CoV-2 — Jama Network (academic study)
- A ‘tripledemic’ hitting kids across the country has some people blaming ‘immunity debt.’ But experts say that’s misguided—and could be damaging — Fortune
- Frontline healthcare workers deny BC’s claim that all patients tested for respiratory illness — Capital Daily
- Meanwhile the Koch Foundation (American extreme-right oil and gas magnates) confirmed to have sewn misinformation about COVID — Washington Post
- This article is specific to COVID, but speaks to the general trend of professionals who do not connect to societal good over their own career advancement.
Kindergarten Registration
- Kindergarten Registration for September 2023 opens today for for children born in 2018. The "priority registration period" is from November 1 to January 31, and a draw in schools without capacity for their neighbourhood population will hold a draw for available spaces, if oversubscribed, in February of 2023. Please let friends, family and community members know they can find more information about registration via the VSB website.
- If you plan to apply for a space in a kindergarten district choice program, you must still complete this two-step process first and further apply for the choice program through a separate process that runs from January 9 to February 3, 2023. Families who wish to apply for their child to attend a cross boundary school must complete the cross boundary process, which runs from February 1 - 28.
- For families with pre-K students, VSB offers free Strong Start drop-in programs available un various locations. Find a location via this StrongStart Flyer map. A registration package to complete and further instructions can be found on at the website, where you will also find the "Preparing for Kindergarten" flyer translated into several languages.
- Ready, Set, Learn is a VSB program designed to prepare children for entering into Kindergarten. Contact your local neighbourhood school for event dates.
VSB Registration for Choice and Cross Boundary Programs
- You will find information and deadlines for various Cross Boundary and Choice Programs offered in VSB on their website.
- Check out elementary school district choice programs, including Fine Arts, Indigenous Focus, International Baccalaureate (IB), Mandarin and French programs, Montessori. Dates for information sessions, when decided upon, can be found on this site.
- Here is a list of the high school district choice programs, including Mini Schools (information nights happening now), French and Mandarin, International Baccalaureate (IB), Career and Alternative School options. Advanced Placement Exams, for students who are "self-studying" for them where there were once AP classes available, can be found in this list.
- Note that Vancouver Learning Network, Vancouver's online learning program, is also listed as an option for both elementary and high school students. Parents should note that VLN's success rate for students remains extremely low, statistically speaking, and Vancouver DPAC advocates for better funding and upgrades to this option to ensure it is a viable option for students to find success.
Grants for PACs
Student Learning Survey
- Student Learning Survey (SLS) results are in and the:public records have been updated with the 2021/2022 SLS data. You will find the information on the Data BC Catalogue.
Preparing for Graduation
- Here are a couple of tools student and their families can use as they prepare for graduation:
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BCCPAC
News and Resources
Events and Deadlines
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VSB
News
Updates from September Committee & Board Meetings
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Ministry of Education
News
News from other Ministries
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Resources
- Check out our PAC 101 presentation delivered to all PACs in October, and Treasury 101 presentation, which took place in November. Find our presentation decks for PAC 101 and Treasury 101 on our website.
- Our Family Resources document for the various ways students and their families can find support during the years they are in schools. Topics include Indigenous Family Support and TRC information, antiracism materials, SOGI resources, further education (including college, university and scholarship links) info, youth mental health resources and community-supported free-of-charge tutoring services.
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Photo credit: Jaime Clay, Vancouver Skyline, November 2022
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RT @dpac_michael: A Nonprofit is conducting a Walking School Bus pilot project and is looking for three PACs to participate. Please s… https://t.co/BdIO8bWfGX